If you are only shooting about 30 shot shells a year, it probably wouldn't be worth while to get set up with a shotshell reloading press.
I'm probably one of the old timers mentioned above. I started reloading shotshells in the early '70s with a 12 gauge Honey Bair single stage press. I still have it set up on my reloading bench for hunting loads. I didn't get my first shotgun until 1970 when I got out of the Army, and I started shooting at our local Trap club to learn how to shoot a shotgun. I started with Trap League shooting, then the shotgun bug really bit me and I moved up to ATA Trap competitions and then into NSSA Skeet competitions. At the height of my shooting I was loading and shooting 10-15,000 shotshells per year for almost 20 years.
I don't compete any more, but I still have 4 Hornady 366 progressive shotshell presses (12, 20, 28 ga, and .410) on my bench, and now I only load and shoot about 5,000 shotshells per year. I buy my primers and wads in lots of 5,000 and powder in 8# kegs, and I make my own shot.
When the US got out of the lead business, the price of shot skyrocketed, and many shotshell reloaders quit reloading. There are several makers of progressive shotshell presses, but Hornady quit marketing their 366 presses. And now with the reloading component shortages, many stores don't have any powder or primers. .
Good informative post. I also wouldn't waste my time handloading if I only shot 30 rounds per year. OP, just buy over the counter stuff. I also quit shooting competitively right before shot started to skyrocket. I believe around '08. I remember shooting at 3 different trap clubs per week, just for practice and then money shoots on the weekends. A lot of long bomb stuff. 27+ yards and beyond.. Back then you needed to load your own and "run what you brung" to be competitive. A good guy I shot with said he used to load his with a dump truck. Some shoots from 80 yards behind the trap house, a lot of guys used copper plated stuff. Made the sky red under lights.. If you ever shot that kind of competition, you know what I'm talking about.. Back in those days I loaded thousands of rounds per month. Burning up 500 rounds/day at some shoots...
